I have a 1998 Cobra and was going to put on some new high performance pads. I was wondering if new slotted/drilled rotors would be a benefit on a mostly street driven car?
If they would, where would you suggest I shop for some at?
Rotors that are drilled/slotted are of little benefit on a street car. They're of some value on a race car...unless you enjoy swapping on new rotors often.
When they're the next step up price-wise from two sets of Brembo plain rotors that were pure crap dimensionally, slotted rotors start to make a little sense (ATE's, in this case). They also don't seem to score/groove quite as rapidly in street driving.
Drilled rotors used to have a purpose. I guess they still do if it's an outdated/obsolete race car that you want to emulate.
I have slotted and drilled for street use, but switch over to good ol napa rotors and race pads for HPDE. The regular face rotors are least likely to crack as the drilled ones and are much cheaper.
I have plain faced rotors on my race car. I tried slotted and they wore out pads quicker, and were more prone to cracking. So its a double no for a DD. I can still lock up the fronts on my AI race car so having more pad bite isn't going to do a dam thing for you.
I'm trying out some slotted and zinc washed rotors from http://www.rotorpros.net/ for my fox sn95 Cobra upgrade. Great price shipped and sometimes they have performance pad packages too. I've had these on my car for a couple of months now and have run it up to triple digits, and hauled it down without any drama in the sense of imbalance or other issues. Not certain how they'd hold up in a track environment, but for the street they seem priced more than competitivley.
I wouldn't bother with a slotted or drilled rotors on a tracked car. They don't make any difference is stopping power and the small spaces of less material have been theoretically linked to warping and cracking. Although as far as I know no actual specific testing has been published.
i have some before and after pics from brand new and then 1 track outting the drilled holes cracked pretty bad have to upload pics to photobucket before i can link them to here
OK let me just say right away that I think those rotors are an extremely nice piece and totally worth the money! They are not junk, I would love to have a set.
But I am not buying that they contributed to the shorter stopping distances.
I'm not an engineer but I do know it's against the laws of physics.
I believe the Hawk pads were the sole factor in the shorter stopping distance.
I'd still love to have a set of those DBA rotors though especially since it's nearly impossible to find plain Brembos anymore for the 13" Cobra application.
At the track, seems most people there just go with blanks. Less cracking and way cheaper. And you can have a set of street blanks and track blanks plus a set of extra just incase, cheaper then drilled / slotted.
I'm a little more inclined to think that what slotting does is do a better job of keeping the pad surface fresh and give stuff like brake dust, water, etc., some place to go initially.
Once you can reliably lock up the wheels, further brake torque is not really useable. But there can be differences during the transition from zero to maximum braking.
Slotted and drilled rotrs will "degas" the brake pad. When you stop there is a gas created and the slots and holes relieve that gas between the rotor and brake pad making for better pad contact. They also scrape the pads clean. You will get more pad wear and rotors will have a greater chance to crack with drill rotors. A cheap rotor will most likely crack. A high quailty rotor will be less likely to crack.
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